Tick paralysis in a Chicken
Sumo Soy is not an ordinary chicken. She is a Plymouth Rock chicken weighing a whopping 4 kilos. Unfortunately for her, in tick season any animal can be affected by these nasty parasites.
Sumo Soy’s owner returned from work one day to find she had an enormous gravid female tick on her eye. It had paralyzed her eye but she also had a change in her breathing.
Birds with tick paralysis will often become very weak and be unable to hold their wings in place properly. Fortunately Sumo Soy was still eating well and strong.
Pittwater Animal Hospital has treated numerous Narrabeen Lake ducks with dog tick serum over the years. So Sumo Soy was treated with 5 ml of diluted tick serum placed abdominally.
Luckily she made a full recovery.
